The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1887-07-14
SUNDAY DISPATCHES.

| SUNDAY Dl0EAiOhEo.
Interesting "reminiscences of the Life of
ex-President Jefferson Davis.
BALTIMORE, Nd, July 10.-The Morn
ing Herald of this city, publishes to-day
six column contribution, giving an ac-
count of recent important interviews with
Hon. Jefferson Davis. In these interviews
Mr.. Davis, among other things, charges
that the federal government conspired
during the late war to have him assassi-
mated On this subject Mr.. Davis says:
'While the Confederate government was
at Montgomery, Ala, in 1861, received
an anonymous letter from Philadelphia,
the substance of which was that the gov
ernor of Pennsylvania had released a
noted desperate from the penitentiary
upon the condition that he would go to
Montgomery and assassinate me, with
promise of reward of 100000 if he sue
ceeded; that, after release, the man stated
d, that he could not possibly succeed alone,
and gave the name of another convict of
a character like his own, with whose as
sistance he felt sure of success, and that
the second convict was released to accom-
Rany the first"
Mr.. Davis then gave, with much circum-
stantiality, details of various attempts on
his life Once he discovered a man waSch-
ing him behind brick wall surrounding
his Davis0 residence, and followed him.
The man ran and apparently escaped
through the barn, and, as Mr.. Davis be-
lieves, with the connivance of colored
servant. While riding out to visit
the defensive works around Richmond.
accom- panied by Colonel William Pres
ton johnson, pistol ball, evidently in
tended for "business, passed between
them. The shot came from an apparently
vacant house. A subsequent search re-
vealed an armed man under the floor. He
was sent to General Lee by Davis orders,
with an explanatory note and hope that
he would be put in the front line to stop
ball intended for better man.
, On another occasion, in the suburbs OF
Richmond, a shot was fred at the presi-
dent of the Confederacy from behind
high wall. Mr.. Davis continued: There
we're many reasons before the Dahlgreen
raid for believing efforts inconsistent with
the rules of war, as practiced by civilized
nations, were given to insure an assassina-
ton, especially of the president, and to
ACQUIRE information by spies resident and
transitory, and that large rewards were
{ offered for such services, including arson,
and murder. On one occasion, when
Davis was known to be travelling on rail-
, road to the army, information was
!. brought by lady, who had overheard the
conversation in a barn, that distractions
we're to be placed on the track, and the in
formation was verified by detachment
9 sent out who found the distractions and
q some United States soldiers secreted in a
8 barn near the place where the train was
!. expected to be wrecked
Q Davis gives his motives and political
= status in 1861, and claims that he never
was dsunionist, but that the northern
senators rejected, at that time, every
proposition that promised pacifcation.
He refers to B. +. Butler voting for
him ffty-seven times at Charleston, s. G..
\, in 1860, as the candidate of the demo
? cratic party for PRESIDENT to prevent dis
:, union, and declares he did not desire to bt
president of the confederacy, but tool
;. prompt, as he thought, adequate means tc
prevent it. After his election and inaugu-
ration at Montgomery, all his efforts were
directed towards securing for the seeding
states peaceful separation, though he
e never thought of going back into the
union to escape last resort to arbitra-
ment of arms.
Mr.. Davis discussed his experiences as
secretary of war in Mr.. Pierce's cabinet
q and as United States senator from Mis-
sissippi, his career as president of the
t southern confederacy, and was eloquent
r in his praise of Generals Albert Sidney
Q Johnston, Lee and Jackson. He says
a that Lees object in retreating from Pc
| tersburg in the last days of the war was
to reach Danville, and there unite with
Johnston and crush Sherman before
Grant could join him. He declares Nc
Clellan and Meade were the two best fed
eral generals, and if the former had been
: permitted to carry out his campaign
a against Richmond as he had planned it,
and had received the hearty support of
b. the federal war department, it would have
: resulted disastrously to the confederates.
Speaking of Stonewall Jackson, he said
that had he not fallen at Charlottesville,
the federal army of the Potomac would
have disappeared into history under cir
cumstances far different from those which
marked its dissolution two years later.
Mr.. Davis and his family are warm in
their praise of the late John W. Garrett,
and confirmed CARROTS statement, made
before his death,of how he secured Davis
release from imprisonment at Fort Monroe.
The story, in brief, was that, while Davis
. was confined in Fortress Monroe Mrs. Davis
called on Garrett in Baltimore, and repre-
sented to him that her husband would die
unless speedily released; that Garrett went
to Washington and succeeded in overcom-
ing Secretary Stanton's violent opposition
to the release, and that the securing of
Horace Greely's name TO the bond, and
Davis liberation followed. Mr.. Davis
says he hes no wish to enter public life,
but is deeply solicitous for the welfare and
prosperity of the whole country, and says
the only disturbing elements to be dis
covered now are the efforts of the extrem-
lists of the north to keep alive, for politi-
cal purposes, the animosities and hatred
of the past. He thinks the time has come
, when reason should be substituted for
passion, and when the men who fought in
J support of their honest convictions shall
J. be able and willing to do justice to each
other.
Mexican Securities.
BosToE, July 12.-Mexican Central bonds
four's, 71@711%; seven's, 7S@7819; scrip,
4